U.S. Pat. No. 7,497,606 discloses a reflective rear light for a truck. The reflective rear light includes a light housing, a circuit board disposed in the light housing, a reflection plate unit mounted to the light housing, and a lens disposed in front of the reflection plate unit. The circuit board is provided with a plurality of light emitting diodes, and is divided into a main light region, a license plate light region and a side marker light region. The reflection plate unit includes a main reflecting plate for reflecting light from the main light region, a license plate reflecting plate for reflecting light from the license plate light region, and a side reflecting plate for reflecting light from the side marker light region laterally. The light regions of the light housing and the reflection plate unit are designed in such a way that the reflective rear light serves as a warning light, a license plate light and a side marker light.
In greater detail, the side reflecting plate and the license plate reflecting plate are configured with a plurality of reflecting surfaces having specific design and predetermined curvatures for collecting and redirecting the light to a desired direction and for illuminating a targeted area. However, it is difficult to properly control the direction of the light reflected from the reflecting surfaces in actual use, and such configuration is incapable of providing long-distance illumination. Besides, a relatively large space for accommodating the reflection plate unit is required for proper light reflection, thereby undesirably increasing the overall size of the reflective rear light.